Baking with Fortitude by Dee Rettali

Dee Rettali is an artisan baker who, over a lifetime of baking, has honed her recipes to bring out intense flavour using forgotten craftsmanship. Dee's cakes, created for her bakery - Fortitude Bakehouse in London - are a world away from generic cakes loaded with sugar or artificial flavours.

Many of the 90 recipes are incredibly simple one-bowl mixes, brought together by hand and with no need for fancy kitchen equipment. The batter can be baked then or, to heighten the natural flavours and reduce sweetness further, left to slightly ferment in the fridge. This technique allows you to prep ahead and simply bake the cake when you want it. Some other recipes use a sourdough-like starter as a base to which any combination of seasonal flavours can be added.

Dee has roots in both Ireland and Morocco that have inspired the unique flavour combinations in her bakes, such as:
· White grape and rosemary cake
· Marrakeshi mint and orange peel sourdough loaf cake
· Blueberry and lime little buns
· Turmeric custard and roast pear brioche buns
· Chilli-soaked date and oat loaf cake

But it is the seemingly simple recipes which drew me in with their seasonal flavours and unapologetic hands-on (literally) approach to process. I adore this book!

Winner of the Andre Simon Award 2021
Shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Debut Cookery Book 2022

Hardcover with dust jacket
192 pages
18.26 x 2.25 x 25.22 cm